edensgarden's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is a Sugar Shack, and will there be karakoe there? In my last entry I stated that Canada was cold. I have found the official guide to gauging how cold Canada really is. I take the following from the hilarious and very entertaining book �How to be Canadian� by Will and Ian Ferguson. I bought this book in the Montreal Airport after my flight home was cancelled. I was also trying to get rid of my remaining Canadian money. I had $20, this book was $19.95 � what a deal. A Canadian Guide to Cold Chilly: Below zero with blowing wind and sleet. Montreal � March 16th After spending the day at the Museum of Fine Arts, Stefan, the boyfriend of Denise, and some of his friends decided to give both of us a tres Quebecois experience, a night at a Cabon de Sucre or loosely translated, Sugar Shack. What is a �Sugar Shack�? We had no idea and no one would tell us. Good or bad? I like surprises, but I didn�t want to be too surprised. Were we going to be engaging in illegal activities? Would there be karaoke? Would there be Bingo? **Note to all: No, there was no Karoke or Bingo at the Sugar Shack We drove to a tiny village about an hour north east of Montreal. Upon our arrival all I could see were flashing discoth�que lights. �Great, we�re going dancing!� I hate dancing, I dance like Elaine on Seinfeld, I can�t dance; and I hate dancing even more when I�m in a turtle neck and a wool sweater. Hey look at the geekly turtle neck girl dancing! (Cue Music: Witchy Woman by the Eagles. --Elaine's "song") To our pleasant surprise, it was a discoth�que, but more importantly it was a place to eat, and eat we did! After waiting outside in the �really very damn� cold for a long time, we walked into a great dining hall and sat down. Moments later big platters of eggs, ham, salad, bread, fried potatoes, and pork rinds we brought out for our culinary enjoyment. Yes, the Quebecois like pork rinds. I�d never eaten a pork rind, they looked like fried apples. I thought, �Hmm! Yummy, fried apples!� I was rudely surprised when I found out that they weren�t. Pork Rinds: avoid them! Qubecois also love sugar and all sugar related products and foodstuffs, especially if the sugar is �sucre d�reable� or maple syrup. Every one around me drowned his or her dinner in maple syrup. Real maple syrup --- mmm yummy! During dinner the people around me tried to talk to me. All I could say was �Je ne parlez francias.� They would then look at me and nod their heads in a sort of polite distain. I knew they were thinking, �Ah stupid American, only knows English!� No! No! No! I know more than one language, in fact I know 3 languages, just not your language. Actually most of the people spoke English, and one girl even spoke German (one of my languages), so I got by. It was quite fun really, every one again was terribly drunk. Drunken people are very generous, and again I was offered pitcher after pitcher of beer. Again all I could say was, �Non, merci! But thanks for the thought Pierre!� After dinner Denise and I decided to check out the rest of the Sugar Shack. In one room there were long tables of snow. A man was pouring hot maple sugar taffy on the snow. After it cooled for a minute or so, he would take popsicle sticks and roll the taffy. These little sugar pops were called, �tire sur la neige�. We decided to try one. HOLY BLAST OF SUGAR BATMAN! I have never in my life tasted anything so sweet. It was �really very damn sweet.� After one bite I was done with my sugar pop and into the trash it went. The Quebecois couldn�t get enough of this. One guy just kept popping the sugar pops into his mouth like they were chips. No wonder everyone has bad teeth, too much tire sur la neige and tartes au sucre (another Quebecois delicacy � sugar pie. It�s sugar in a pie shell). We rolled out to the car and rolled home. My trip was almost over, or so I thought. Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story� 9:03 p.m. - March 31, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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